Nominations Day is January 10 in Guyana

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has announced in a notice published in the media that Nominations Day for the upcoming General and Regional Elections is January 10, 2020.
In the notice published on Saturday, GECOM is calling for all political parties contesting the 2020 General and Regional Elections to submit their symbol for approval. In the notice, GECOM said that the approval of the symbols has to be done before Nominations Day. As such, the deadline for the submission is December 13, 2019.
The notice of Nominations Day comes days two days after Director-General of the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon, when asked about the dissolution of Parliament, said that would solely depend on the needs of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).
“In fact, we have said it is important that GECOM gets all of the resources it needs to ensure that we have credible elections in March of 2020. So what I am saying is those issues will have to be dealt with before the Parliament is dissolved. I can’t say that Parliament is going to meet today, the next day or whatever but these are the matters that are under active consideration in the Cabinet and so that the dissolution of the National Assembly will be determined in principle measure by the need for GECOM to get the additional resources which it says it wants,” Harmon told the media.
In September, President David Granger announced March 2, 2020, as the date for the hosting of the constitutionally-mandated General and Regional Elections; however, with time creeping up, he is yet to issue a proclamation to dissolve Parliament.
If elections are to be held on March 2, 2020, as announced, then President Granger would have to dissolve Parliament by December 3, 2019.
This is in keeping with Article 61 of the Constitution, which states that election of members of the National Assembly should be done within three months after every dissolution of Parliament.
It has been almost one year after the successful passage of a motion of no confidence against the A Partnership for National Unity /Alliance for Change (APNU/AFC) coalition government and the constitutionally-mandated General and Regional Elections are yet to be held.
This is despite the Constitution clearly outlining that elections were supposed to be held no later than 90 days after the motion was passed.
Earlier in November, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo told reporters that the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) will resume protest actions if President David Granger does not dissolve Parliament come December.
Having already set March 2, 2020, as the date for the much-anticipated General and Regional Elections and issuing the election proclamation, pressure has been mounting on the President to also dissolve the 11th Parliament.
The APNU/AFC coalition has been acting as a caretaker government for nearly one year since the December 21, 2018 passage of the No-Confidence Motion (NCM) against it.